This had been on my agenda for some time and I was looking forward to the exhibition immensely. I haven’t been back to Tasmania for nearly 40 years. Tasmania was coming to Paris. Or rather the exhibition, « Theatre of Memory » adapted for La Maison Rouge following the Hobart exhibition in 2012.
David Walsh is an entrepreneur, a maker and a creator. I gather the venue he has built in Hobart includes space for concerts as well as a hotel and restaurants. Hardly a conventional museum. But the man is anything but conventional.
The first time that I had come in contact with Walsh was during the Boltanski Monument in Paris in 2010. The lecturer asked me if I had heard of David Walsh and the bet he had made, a rather black bet with Boltanski……I had not.
David Walsh first made global headlines in 2009, when he gambled on the life of Christian Boltanski, a French artist whose installations focus on death. Walsh was a mysterious figure even in his home, Tasmania, where, other than lurid rumours of a fortune made by gambling, little was known about him.
Walsh agreed to pay Boltanski for the right to film his studio, outside Paris, 24 hours a day, and to transmit the images live to Walsh, in Tasmania. But the payment was turned into a macabre bet: the agreed fee was to be paid as a monthly stipend, calculated as a proportion of an eight-year period, until his death. Should Boltanksi, who was then 65 years old, live longer than eight years, Walsh will end up paying more than the work is worth, and will have lost. But if Boltanski dies within eight years, the gambler will have purchased the work at less than its agreed-upon value, and won the bet.
“He has assured me that I will die before the eight years is up, because he never loses. He’s probably right,” Boltanski told Agence France-Presse. “I don’t look after myself very well. But I’m going to try to survive.” He added, “Anyone who never loses or thinks he never loses must be the Devil.” In another interview, Boltanski described Walsh as being “fascinated by death”. “Ultimately, he would really like to view my death, live. He says that he is constantly anticipating that moment. He would like to have my last image.”
I use this story to describe Walsh and his gambling habits. I gather that is how he became one of the richest men in Australia. Installing such a museum in Hobart - one of the last cities before the south Pole (some 200 000 inhabitants) in itself was a gamble I would think. Yet it draws more than 3,000 visitors a day and is now a cultural centre for an International public. I’ve read a lot about it. Seen many pictures. And had even written to David Walsh for help concerning a publication which was apparently a little too erotic for the original publishers. He replied. Unfortunately he is not in the publishing business.
After seeing this exhibition, I really do feel like visiting Tasmania again and especially this museum. You approach the site by water from the Derwent River and that in itself is quite something.
It’s the presentation that makes this exhibition so extraordinary. « The Theatre of the World » is just that. A play divided into 16 acts. It reminds me a little of a 4 hour play (or was it 7?) on the French Revolution directed by Ariane Mnouchkine (The Sun Theatre) where the spectators walked from room to room to follow the spectacle. Here in David Walsh’s theatre you do just that. Some spectators spend a lot of time « scrutinizing » the macabre pieces on show. Others seemed to skip a room and go as fast as they could into the next.
It is a spectacular set up, yet when I started going through the catalogue and looking more closely at the individual pieces or paintings, in many cases, they lost their strength as they needed the « mise en place » to give them the strength and character from the other « actors ».I did buy the catalogue and have looked as the individual pieces often since yesterday. Unfortunately although th "act" is given, it is virtually impossible to find out who the different painters or creators are. So in the photos I show below, I have just indicated the name of "The Act". Many artists I did know but outside of Sidney Nolan, there were very few Australian artists that I had come across. Most of these photos are by Australian artists.
The entry hall is dark and dreary. It was difficult to see anything at all. Then in the 2nd act, « Retrospect » the objects shown of all kinds including aboriginal pieces strung up high in the ceiling. It was as if the objects became ideas and one had to try to relate one object to another to understand what the act was all about. Or just look …. which I did not understanding what the concept was at all and yet engrossed in the presentation.
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| RETROSPECT |
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| RETROSPECT - Robert McKinnon "Mrs Vemeer's Kitchen. He works in Launceston! |
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| RETROSPECT |
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| AN OBJECT IN RETROSPECT |
We go on through the whole museum. Theatrical acts which lead us through life to its end. A lot I liked. A lot I loathed. However, in the stage presentation it worked. I don’t think that many of the pieces I saw would suit my taste as a « one man show ».
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| CROSSING - THIS COMESS FROM TASMANIA - "plomb Chromaté" |
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| MAJESTY |
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| MAJESTY |
MAJESTY was majestic A full room of tapas (from bark) with a Scophage and a Giacometti. I think I must have stayed and stared for at least ten minutes. Watching the spectators who looked, strolled, ran, were interested or disinterested.....
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| BEYOND - I thought it was Cattelan - I THINK it is "Long Man Solitaire" but am not certain" |
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| CONTENTION - SIDNEY NOLAN |
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| CONTENTION - SIDNEY NOLAN |
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| ABSTRACTION - My guess is Sam Francis - but? |
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| MUTATE - Basquiat - "Skin Flint" |
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| DOMESTICATE - SIDNEY NOLAN - Centaur and Angel |
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| SCOPE - Juul Kraijer - untitled |
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| ABSTRACTION - and the beetles do relate to a cat ? |
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| GENESIS - JAN FABRE |
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| SCOPE......Adelaide Iron Side - "A Dream" |
There was one video though which I watched twice. Once again in a rather dreary setting. Two large dogs followed an object which we could not see. They followed it up, down, around, left right in unison. Their heads on the same level until one of the dogs lay down and continued staring at whatever it was. But who knows what? It was hilariously funny which makes me think that although Walsh is fascinated by death, (and sex) he must have a marvelous sense of humour. Apart from the dogs, we weren’t smiling too much during those 16 acts.
I wonder if it would be worthwhile going to Hobart for an exhibition?
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